FW: Vegetarians smarter than carnivores

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Every vegetarian saves more than 100 animals a year from abuse by the meat industry.

 

Vegetarians smarter than carnivoresSun, 13 Jul 2008 22:13:52 -0400

"Bina"

 

Vegetarians soy much smarterArticle from: AAPJanuary 22, 2007 12:00am Daily Telegraph, AustraliaAUSTRALIA'S elite high IQ group, Mensa, has more than its fair share ofvegetarians and that's probably no coincidence, according to new research. A new study, published in the British Medical Journal, suggests that people whochoose the vegetarian path are smarter than their carnivorous counterparts.The study traced 8,000 people from birth and found that those who becamevegetarian by 30 had an IQ five points above the average.They also tended to be better educated and of higher social class, but evenafter adjusting for this, they were still more intelligent, the University ofSouthamptom study showed.It's only logical that smart people are more likely to spurn meat, says TrishKennett, chief executive of Mensa in Australia and a non-red meat eater."Smart people consider all aspects of their life very, very carefully,'' shesays."People who think about the ethics of killing animals will naturally choosevegetarianism, and variations of that, more often.''Nutritionist Rosemary Stanton says a vegetarian diet can't enhance intelligencein itself, especially if people forgo the brain-building qualities of omega-3fatty acids found in fish.But like Kennett, she says people with high IQs are likely to be thinkers."And thinkers are probably going to realise the ethical and health relatedbenefits of not eating meat,'' she says.Sydney IT specialist Chris Fegan seems to bear this out.He says he was inspired to join the ranks of Australia's 400,000 vegetariansthree years ago by the writings of bioethicist Peter Singer."I think that it's simply that to become vegetarian in our Australian societyinvolves a break from the norm, not just copying what other people do,'' hesays.The research team started out by investigating the link between diet andintellect, to see if they could get to the bottom of why smarter people are lesslikely to get coronary heart disease.Tracking babies born in 1970, the scientists measured IQ at age 10 andinterviewed them as adults.Almost one in 20 - 366 people - labelled themselves vegetarian at 30, though onethird also ate either chicken or fish.The non-red meat eaters were also more likely to be female.Male vegetarians had an IQ score of 106, compared with 101 for non-vegetarians,while female vegetarians averaged 104, compared with 99 for their meat-eatingpeers."Our finding that children with greater intelligence are more likely to reportbeing vegetarian as adults, coupled with the evidence on the potential healthbenefits of a vegetarian diet, may help to explain why higher IQ in childhood oradolescence is linked with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease in adultlife,'' they concluded.The study appears to vindicate what some of the world's greatest thinkers havesaid through history.The 18th century scientist and ardent vegetarian Benjamin Franklin said avegetarian diet brought a "greater clearness of head and quickercomprehension''.Nineteenth century playwright George Bernard Shaw was quoted as saying "a mindof the calibre of mine cannot derive its nutriment from cows''.And Shakespeare had his Twelfth Night character Sir Andrew Aguecheck say "I ama great eater of beef and I believe that does harm my wit.''Mark Berriman, director of the Australian Vegetarian Society NSW, jokes that thestudy is only saying what vegetarians have known all along."We've always known us vegetarians are smarter ... but it's nice to have theproof.''